Although the first condition is easy to understand, the idea of property is more complex. A fish farmer rearing trout will have bought the eggs or fry. This stock was therefore obtained by a financial transaction. The same is the case for a shellfish farmer who buys spat and puts it to grow on a leased area for which he or she pays rent. The situation is less clear when young salmon are released that will perhaps return in several years to breed. Who do they belong to? Are they the property of the producers who originally released them, or of the fishermen? The FAO made a decision for this case : these fish were aquacultural products, but became fishery products.

History

2000 B.C.

Rudimentary fish farming

Carp in ChinaTilapia in Egypt

600 B.C.

Oysters placed in on-bottom growing areas (parcs)

Greece

15th century A.D.

“Valliculture”(fish captured as they moved up into brackish water and maintained in an enclosure)

Italy

18th century

Discovery of artificial fertilisationApplication to salmonids

19th century

Transplantation of salmonidsDevelopment of oyster farming

Europe

1950

Eel farming

Japan

1960

Massive increase in rainbow trout farming

EuropeNorth America

1970

Sea ranchingAquaculture of seriola, catfish and scallops

1980

“New aquaculture” with production of salmon, shrimp, seabass and seabream

1990

Emergence of turbot, sturgeon and tropical species like grouper, barramundi and umbrine